we're almost out of training time. kind of scary, next weekend running the triathlon along with nina, kendrick and my six-pack, some of our producers joining us, sng will be live. keep up with the latest at cnn.com/sanjay. right now a check of your top stories and on to mr. t.j. holmes. good morning. we are almost out of time. now less than three days away from a possible u.s. default. democrats and republicans were scrambling last night and they will be scrambling again today in washington. both houses of congress will be in session, trying to find a way out of this legislative standoff. meanwhile, governments, local governments, have problems of their own right now, facing a major crisis in alabama where one county is getting set for

what could be the largest municipal bankruptcy in u.s. history. good morning to you all. thank you for spending part of your weekend with us. i'm t.j. holmes. we do need to start with a debate that was supposed to be over already. we are less than three days from a possible u.s. default. this clock is still ticking and a deal is not done. we are expecting a lot of action on capitol hill today. both houses in session, but whether there's going to be any real progress, that's anybody's guess. this is what we've got going on today. the house starts debate at noon with the likely vote on a democratic proposal expected some time after 1:00 p.m. not expected to pass, however. then over on the senate side, they kick off debate on the democratic proposal around 1:00 eastern time. they could be debating that for up to 12 hours before they even vote on whether to vote. kind of a procedural vote would take place, possibly around 1:00 a.m. we did hear from president obama this morning in his weekend white house message. listen.

>> the power to solve this is in our hands. all that's needed is a simple vote that democrats and republicans have taken for decades, including all of the leaders in congress today. it was done 18 times under president reagan, 7 times under george w. bush, and it must be done again now. it's not a vote that allows congress to spend more money. raising the debt ceiling simply gives our country the ability to pay the bills that congress has already racked up. >> well, let us give you the republican response. that was delivered by arizona senator jon kyl this morning. >> president obama is simply too committed to the european style of big government, that his policies have set in motion. to democrats in washington, the answer isn't to cut spending, but to raise taxes and keep on spending. republicans believe we must solve our debt crisis. and we believe we can solve it if democrats will work with us. >> all right. we do have our correspondents up

early this morning. athena jones at the white house for us this morning, also our joe johns, keeping an eye on capitol hill. joe, let me start with you, forget all the symbolic votes, the one we saw yesterday could see another one today this early afternoon. forget that stuff. what is a real possibility of happening right now? how are they going to get this done? >> okay. first, you got to say, this is a poisonous environment on capitol hill and in washington in general, but the way the democrats have been able to do this before is they've reached out to a group of potentially persuadable senators in the middle. these would be people who can sort of move in, take a look at this thing, try to fashion some kind of language that you might call a compromise, and those people become the power brokers and then they have to sort of pass it and hope for a deal over in the house of representatives. of course, the big question is,

even if they're able to do all of that, what's the house of representatives going to do, t.j.? >> athena, let me bring you in there. he talked about brokers on capitol hill. is the president still a broker today? >> well, certainly, t.j. of course the action is taking place on capitol hill. the action we can see in front of cameras. but there's a lot going on behind the scenes. the white house isn't just sitting idly by. we know there a lot of conversations going on between members of all levels here, staff at all levels here at the white house and people on the hill. democratic officials told cnn that both the president and the vice president have been in touch with members of congress these past several days, and so we can expect that to continue. we've heard also that vice president biden has been in touch particularly with republican senator mitch mcconnell who has said that the white house has got to be involved in any negotiations leading toward this final compromising. we can expect that kind of talk to continue these conversations to continue as we go forward the next few days. >> joe, we've been hearing about this deadline for months, august 2nd, that's coming up on

tuesday. that's when the treasury department says we won't have enough money to cover all of our bills so we'll have to start deciding. that's tuesday. but there's another important deadline if you will coming up on sunday night, because they do not want the markets it to open after the week they just had, the markets just had their worst week in a year, and to open on monday with no deal in place, nobody wants that. so they need to get something done this weekend, don't they? >> yeah, they certainly do. that means the senate comes in at 1:00 in the morning, if necessary. unless there's some deal worked out today or even tomorrow some time, the senate would have to come in around 1:00 in the morning and just sort of go through debate with an eye toward getting a vote some time on tuesday. it would be better for them to try to shift that timeline, shorten it, compress it if you will, and send something over to the house a little bit earlier because they're, obviously, going to need more time in the house to try to get the sort of

conservative caucus together to decide what they can do with anything the senate sends them. >> and athena, one more to you here. are there -- i mean i don't know how much the white house may be letting you and other reporters up there know about contingency plans. there was talk that president could maybe try to use some constitutional power some think he may have to raise the debt ceiling if a deal isn't made or talk the treasury secretary could stretch things out for another week or two. is there a backup plan? >> well, this is really going to be unchartered territory if we get to that point. it's going to be the treasury department in the end that's going to have to prioritize what bill gets paid, who gets their checks. we've been told as we get closer to that date we may get some idea more of what the treasury department's plans are. the white house maintains we're not going to get to that point. we heard the president say in his weekly address today and yesterday in the comments he made, that they don't believe the two parties are really all that far apart. there's still room, many different ways to resolve this problem and to come together on

compromise. they still maintain that we're not going to have to worry about what happens on august 2nd because there's going to be a deal by august 2nd. i'll tell you, t.j., i wouldn't put any bets on when exactly that deal will be struck. >> we have learned, haven't we? athena, john, good to have you here on a cnn saturday morning. we'll be checking in with you two plenty throughout the morning. coming up next hour we're still looking deeper into this debate with a couple favorites on cnn saturday morning, strategists along to break this down for us. tomorrow night a cnn special report on the debt crisis, join wolf blitzer and don lemon for a breakdown on the hurdles, options, obstacles, "get it done, countdown to debt crisis" right here on cnn. let's get out of d.c., shall we, and go a few hundred miles south. in another government is dealing with its own debt problems. we're talking about jefferson county, alabama. officials there were ready to file chapter 9 bankruptcy.

that would allow them to restructure more than $4 billion in debt. a lot of that debt is from a court-ordered improvement to the county's sewer system. but the bankruptcy deal is now on hold for at least a week as the county tries to work out a settlement with its creditors. >> we will take a look at whatever they propose, if they propose something. they may not propose anything. fine. then it's our move. >> it would have to be close and it cannot involve a double digit rate increase. so we're open for a bankruptcies have always been my last option and we're down to the end of our rope. we have to have a settlement. >> let me explain what this means now. jefferson county, if they end up filing chapter 9, it's believed this would be the largest municipal bankruptcy case in u.s. history. at eight minutes past the hour now, let us say good morning to our reynolds wolf. we have been looking at this storm, it was -- we thought it

was going to be something. people were hoping it was going to be something. nothing. >> what's funny when we think about storms hitting texas in the past, we've had some that have been really strong ones, thought about with fear in terms of recent ones, ike, we've got rita, even have dolly. in this situation this is one they were hoping would come onshore and provide rainfall. rob marciano happens to be in padre island and rob, this was definitely a bit of a disappointment, wouldn't you say? >> huge disappointment, not only for forecasters but obviously for the folks who are wanting the rain. this thing really fell apart. we've seen tropical storms that weren't very organized kind of fall apart gradually when they hit the coast, but this thing just completely died, completely faded once it came onshore. that was certainly disappointing for the folks that want that rain. i've never been involved in a tropical cyclone where so many were cheer leading for this to

come onshore with some amount of strength and moisture. just to give people an idea of what it was like to -- when the storm came onshore, a lot of times we like to do a tick tock in the business do taped pieces throughout the storm because it came in overnight -- this what is we came up with. >> it's about 8:00 local time. tropical storm don is only about 40 miles south of here. right now making landfall on the padre island national seashore. we have felt little more than a few sprinkles here but the winds have picked up. some rain has fallen down to the south but the widespread rainfall that this state so desperately needs has so far been elusive. don's made landfall about 20 miles to our south. getting a lot of wind, sand in our face, but no rain. check out the pocket radar here. this storm is dead. radar empty. rain nonexistent. that has at love folks disappoint -- has a lot of folks disappointed. it was unreal to watch this thing make its way here. there was dry air ahead of it, but maybe the ground here and

resulting air has been so dry, that that's one of the reasons. regardless, this storm just soiled the sheets when it hit the shoreline. but there's some good news here. because a lot of farmers have planted cotton this year because cotton is drought resistant. the harvest is coming in now and they don't want rain when the harvest -- when trying to harvest the cotton. diminishing the quality and yield. ironically enough, the cotton farmers who have something to harvest, are happy that it didn't rain. so there you go. there's a nice end to this story. the drought continues as you've been saying. deficits well up and over a foot and they didn't get much to put a dent in that at all with don. >> do bring a ray of sunshine perspective in terms of the cotton growers. we'll be chatting with you later this morning. folks, another system possibly another system out in the atlantic. we're talking about the potential of emily. more on that in your national forecast in just a few moments.

>> we appreciate. we'll talk to you again in just a second. 11 minutes past the hour now. we're going to take you to a story that maybe the world is not talking enough about. we're talking about somalia where the u.n. says the world's worst humanitarian disaster is taking place right now. a report coming up. also coming up next, the chances are that this debt crisis is going to hit your personal finances in some way, form or fashion. you need to know how to get ready for that. that is next. this debt ceiling debate as it goes on, as tough as it is to come to an agreement, you would think maybe they don't do this often, you would be wrong. they do this all the time, raise the debt ceiling. do you know how many times it's been raised since 1962? would you think 34 times, 74 times, or 110 times in 60 seconds i have your answer. stay with me on this cnn saturday morning. yoo-hoo. hello. it's water from the drinking fountain at the mall.

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13 minutes past the hour. before the break we asked you, how many times do you think the debt ceiling has been raised since 1962? it's actually been done, at least according to the congressional research service, 74 times, including ten increases since 2001. 74 times. boy, getting to 75 has been a doozy, has it not? this debt crisis? washington may be beyond your control but ways you can protect yourself from some of the fallout, if the u.s., that's if the u.s. defaults on its debt next week. cnn explains. >> reporter: the gridlock is here, but the impact will be felt here and in the final days before a deadline to raise the nation's debt ceiling, many americans wonder if there's any way to prepare for a possible default. >> you can't control what's going on in washington, but you can control your own purse strings. >> reporter: interest rates are likely to rise if the nation can't pay its debt.

that would impact everything from mortgages to car loans and credit cards. you may not be able to pay down balances before next tuesday but you can help yourself by not adding it to the load. >> we can address the credit card by simply putting less on the card. again, using more cash. your interest might go up, but the amount outstanding will go down. >> reporter: take stock of all student loans, check in with lenders to see what might happen and how they might help. >> it's certainly a wise idea to contact your lender, always have a good relationship with your lender, keep the communication lines open and see if there's anything that can be done. >> reporter: a monthly budget helpful in any financial climate but especially when things are uncertain. it you're looking for more wiggle room, try making calls about recurring bills like cable and mobile phones and insurance. >> if you can prove yourself to be a less risky consumer in those regards with car insurance and home insurance, you might be able to get 10 or 20% knocked

off your bill. >> reporter: and make sure you're ready to weather any future crisis, even the smallest amount of money saved is a start. in washington, i'm karen kaifa. coming up next hour as well, you don't want to miss the friends of our show on cnn saturday and sunday morning, maria and lenny. they will be along coming your way at the top of the hour. also coming up, a lot of people might be looking for a nice car that's going to set them apart from everybody else. how about a vintage 1940 pontiac? that's see-through. it's made out of plexiglass. i am going to show it to you after the break. also coming up -- it's unfortunate, but we are looking for someone to replace reynolds wolf. our first applicant, you are seeing him there. fabio trying to give reynolds a run for his money. reynolds' job is safe and you'll see why after the break.

it does something to your heart. i think what people like most about the grilled food is the taste. the flavor comes from that oak wood. the shrimp, the fresh fish, the steaks. it locks in the flavor, it seals in the juices so that when you put the fork in it, it just goes through it like butter. it's beautiful. [ laughs ] i'm proud to be a grill master. i love food. my name is charles himple. i'm a red lobster grill master, and i sea food differently. my name is charles himple. any questions? no. you know... ♪ we're not magicians

♪ we can't read your mind ♪ ♪ read your mind ♪ we need your questions ♪ each and every kind ♪ every kind ♪ will this react with my other medicine? ♪ ♪ hey, what are all these tests even for? ♪ ♪ questions are the answer ♪ yeah ♪ oh 18 minutes past the hour on this cnn saturday morning. give you a look at some of the stories our affiliates are keeping an eye on. check out this statute, this is being unveiled at the "uss hornet" museum in california. a reproduction of the 25-foot statute in new york's times square. the times square kiss statute based on the photograph taken in times square august 14th, 1945, when americans were celebrating

the end of world war ii. also this is the ride i was telling you about. you see this? this is a plexiglass pontiac that was built for the 1939 new york world's fair. at the time, it was built for a cost of around $25,000. it's being auctioned off this morning in the detroit suburb of plymouth. it's expected to sell for up to a half million dollars. reynolds you have a look on your face. not feeling the car? >> i thought it would be more. >> more than half million. >> pretty much. we have cars less and impressive than that sell for a lot more. >> good point you make. one other to show you, does have to do with reynolds. we're having tryouts. he does not have to worry about this guy. >> this is a live look at portland, oregon. it's very sunny today and it feels so nice on fabio's skin. thank you, sun. >> that's funny.

i thought it was funny. >> i think it's great. >> good sport. >> you know, it's not only just giving the five-day forecast, ten-day forecast, you need to express how the sun feels on your skin. >> you don't do that enough. >> maybe more of that. >> fewer clothes is probably the route to go. >> more hair, fewer clothes. >> this was fabio out at -- the station in portland. koin doing the weather, having fun. he's trying to make a comeback with some of these commercials you've seen. >> pastel nice on him. ravishing, i think. good-looking guy. unbelievable. >> i'm going to head back and not tell you how the sun feels on my exposed skin. we're going to talk about something different. we're going from fabio to don. what a disappointment. this was a storm we had a lot of hope for, thought was going to bring great rainfall to south texas. why great rain? much of texas is mired in a horrible drought, desperate for any rainfall they could get.

it did look promising over the last couple days. as the storm began to get closer to the shoreline, it interacted with a lot of dry air aloft and that basically pulled the air out of the balloon so to speak and it is moving into parts of the big bend area. maybe some stray showers, but not the rain producer we had originally anticipated. what we will be seeing, though, is possibly some development farther back into the atlantic. we're watching this one area where there's about a 70% chance from the national hurricane center this might become a named storm, possibly emily in days to come. more about that coming up. t.j., send it back to you. >> i appreciate you, talk to you shortly. congress in session on this saturday. probably goes into sunday as well because they are running out of time. we will hear from leaders of both houses coming up in this whole debt debate. when i say walmart is trying to expand, you might be thinking what else could they possibly take over and expand to? well, they could be about to change the way you watch movies

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24 minutes past the hour now on this cnn saturday morning. walmart is now getting into

another business, the movie business. and that could change the way you watch movies at home. you can now rent or buy movies on walmart's website. our digital lifestyle expert and friend of our show on cnn saturday morning mario armstrong joining me from baltimore. when i first heard this, we need to be clear, people go on the website and buy a dvd and it's delivered to their house. that's not what we're talking about here? >> that's not what we're talking about and that's why this is such a big change to how we would be consuming entertainment in our homes and computers and other devices. now what you're talking about is going on to walmart's site to be able to actually download the movie right then and there so you can watch it, you could stream that movie and watch it from your computer, from your laptop, you know, right in your own house. >> do you need anything special here, special equipment? do you need a certain type of -- i'll let you get into the technical stuff, how much speed on your computer and all that to be able to download these, but other than that you don't need much, do you?

>> you don't need much of anything, absolutely not. all you need is really a laptop or a computer, internet connectivity. the higher the band width on that connectivity obviously the better to be able to stream those movies and be able not to have buffering and all that hiccuping sometimes you experience on the web. no, other than that, you don't need anything else. they're not charging a subscription fee for their service. they are saying you can do this per rental, $3.99 for a standard definition. want the high definition one it's going to be about 5 to $6s. >> bandwidth, i was going to say that. i knew that. >> you do know a few technical terms. >> well, tell us here, walmart, when you hear walmart is getting into the game, you better pay attention. >> absolutely. because you know, i don't want to call them mass consumization but we know once a product hits their shelves it does reach mass consumers. so, with that being said, i think this could be a game changer in that for a long time, we've seen other companies in this space. we've seen netflix, apple, hue

lu, all the ways to get content over the web but for it to go into walmart that's going to raise the attention for a lot of people who will say, wait i can do this, can i stream these movies on my television instead of watching it on my computer. i think it's going to bring more attention and many more consumers to realize hey, i could be experiencing entertainment in a different way. >> you told us about walmart a second ago, their logo, their motto, always low prices always. and this sense, you told us how much it would cost for the standard definition and high definition, $3.99 and $5.99. how does that compare, i guess, i guess red box is popular and netflix, start with netflix. >> okay. >> how do they compare price wise? >> yeah. well netflix is a little more -- more expensive, but it all depends on what your usage is like. for example, netflix announced they were going to have price

hikes. we're showing $7.99 but that may be going up to about 16 bucks. so we already know that there's a price hike happening. it's unlimited rentals. if you know you're going to rent three or four or five movies in a month maybe that is a good plan for you. it is a subscription-based plan, however. you have to be aware of that. red box, these are kiosks where you can go and pick up your dvd and pay a buck for that. that's not streaming, that's picking it up. i worry about that business and how they may be impacted by the convenience of someone like walmart stepping into this space saying hey, everybody, you can use, you know, your computer to watch movies right at home without leaving home. >> all right. good stuff, as always. mario armstrong, good to see you as always. thanks so much. >> you too, my friend. rest of our weekend. >> you do the same. >> catch mario every weekend, he has the latest for you on all things technology related. up next, we're still talking about, yes, i know, we're still

talking about this debate over raising the debt ceiling. >> i stuck my neck out a mile to try to get an agreement with the president of the united states. >> stuck his neck out a mile. time is running out. what's the white house doing this weekend and what are both houses of congress doing this weekend? they certainly are in session. also, a little later, a human tragedy unfolding in somalia. it is what the u.n. is calling the worst humanitarian disaster in the world. we will take you there for an important story. you need to be paying attention to. ok. [ cellphone rings ] hey. you haven't left yet. no. i'm boarding now... what's up? um...would you mind doing it again? last time. [ engine turns over ] oooohhhh...sweet. [ male announcer ] the chevy cruze with the my chevrolet app. the remote control car is finally here.

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we're at the bottom of the hour on cnn saturday morning. i'm t.j. holmes. thank you for spending part of your day with us. some of the stories that are making headlines this morning. amanda knox back in court in italy continuing her appeal on a murder conviction. forensic experts testifying argue crime scene errors should have made two pieces inadmissible. knox and her italian boyfriend and another man were convicted of murdering her roommate in

2007. in norway a tribute to those killed in the terror attacks a week ago. the memorial was organized by the youth movement of norway's ruling labor party, the same party that organized the youth camp that was attacked. 77 people died that day. meanwhile, the man suspected in the attacks, may have been eyeing other targets as well. anders behring breivik told police he had several places in mind, but police wouldn't say whether or not norway's royal palace and the headquarters of the ruling labor party were included. we are keeping a very close eye on that debt ceiling debate and on washington, d.c., this morning. democrats and republicans are locked in that stalemate over what to do, but they got to do something. both houses of congress are in session today. the house starts debate around noon with a likely vote on a democratic proposal expected some time after 1:00 p.m. it's also expected it's not going to pass. also on the senate side, they will kick off debate on the same

democratic proposal around 1:00 eastern time. that debate could last some 12 hours before they even get to a vote. all this while that clock ticks and ticks closer to tuesday. that is when the treasury department says the federal government will run out of money to pay all of its bills and default would be a possibility. here's a little of the back and forth between the leaders of the house and senate. both have floated plans they believe will solve the problem but neither is passing through the other's house of congress. >> i stuck my neck out a mile to try to get an agreement with the president of the united states. i stuck my neck out a mile. i put revenues on the table in order to try to come to an agreement to avert us being where we are. >> it's obvious to the world the united states senate, that there is now another filibuster.

that's what this is. it's a filibuster to stop us from moving forward on legislation. this is a filibuster in any name you want, it's a filibuster. i'm disappointed. >> let me bring back the white house for us. athena, that's the back and forth on capitol hill. where is the vice president's voice on all this? >> the white house is paying close attention to that minute by minute drama unfolding on the hill. there are no meetings on the president's public schedule but there are ongoing conversations, conversations continuing among all levels here at the white house and with members of congress and their staffs on capitol hill. one democratic official told cnn that both the president and vice president have been in touch with members of congress these last several days and that's going to continue. of course, they're already meetings that need to happen if members of congress believe a meeting of the white house is going to be necessary for a breakthrough as senator mcconnell, the republican minority leader has suggested,

the white house will make those meetings happen. for the president's part, he doesn't believe the two parties are that far apart. he said there are many ways to resolve this crisis but with time running out he used his weekly address to keep the pressure on congress. let's listen to what he had to say. >> that would be inexcusable, and entirely self-inflicted by washington. the power to solve this is in our hands. all that's needed is a simple vote that democrats and republicans have taken for decades, including all of the leaders in congress today. it was done 18 times under president reagan, 7 times under george w. bush and it must be done again now. it's not a vote that allows congress to spend more money. raising the debt ceiling simply gives our country the ability to pay the bills that congress has already racked up. it gives the united states of america the ability to keep its word. and it lets businesses and our economy breathe a sigh of relief. >> and so you heard the president trying to keep the pressure on saying it would be

inexcusable for congress not to take this vote that it's taken so many times over the last several years. and he said also, that what's at stake here is that if the government were to lose its aaa credit rating that would end up amounting to a tax increase on everyone. you have the republican side saying we don't want to see tax increases but if people see their interest rates go up on car loans and home loans that would be like a tax insdplees do we have a contingency plan in place just in case they can't get their act together by tuesday? >> the treasure department has been looking at this and as we get closer to tuesday we can expect that we can get some sense they'll give us some sense of what the plans would be going forward, who would get paid, what bills would get paid first. i can tell you the white house maintains that that's not going to happen. we're not going to reach that point. there is basic agreement on many parts of this issue and that there's room for compromise. so, as far as they're concerned we're not going to get there, t.j. >> as far as they're concerned. everybody else is concerned. athena jones at the white house. thank you, once again, welcome

to one of our newest members of cnn. thank you so much. tomorrow night, cnn special, special report on the debt crisis, join wolf blitzer and don lemon for a breakdown of the hurdles, options, the obstacles, join them for "get it done, countdown to debt crisis" tomorrow night, 9:00 eastern here on cnn. well, are you royal wedding out just yet? it was william and catherine, they were in the spotlight, continue to be in the spotlight, but there is another royal wedding happening this weekend. oh, good be good be. also, tiger, tiger woods, has had a knee issue or a leg issue i should say. he has not been on tour for a little bit now, but now we know when he is going to return to the links. that's coming up. it's 38 minutes past the hour on this cnn saturday morning. stay with me.

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40 minutes past the hour on this cnn saturday morning. nadia bilchik joins me for our morning passport. how many royal weddings can they have? >> this is a lovely royal wedding because it is between a world renowned ekwast jan. >> that's always good. >> and a rugby player. that's quite a good match. zara phillips who is princess anne, the princess royal's daughter, queen elizabeth ii's daughter, it is william's first cousin gets married today. >> there we go. >> zara phillips. zara means bright as dawn in greek, we're talking about names. here is zara, loved in england because she is a very, very accomplished show jumper, accomplished equestrian and apparently quite a remarkable woman and philanthropist but the daughter of princess anne. >> how old is she? >> 30. >> but being the daughter of a daughter, doesn't give you much leverage when it comes to becoming the king or queen. interestingly enough, when zara

was born, zara and peter to princess anne, the queen said what tight wool you like to bestow on my children? she said none. she is miss zara phillips and her brother mr. peter phillips, her mother, princess anne, said why give them a title when they're so far down the line in ever becoming king or queen, why should they have the burden of a title. >> what would a possible title have been? >> they were certain obligations. just miss zara phillips, just going to remain and the man she's marrying, one of britain's most popular rugby players, mike tindle. take a good look, there he is brawling, beefy rugby player and hopefully we have a close-up somewhere, because one of his regrets is he never managed to have yorts donnics. >> that's one of his biggest regrets. >> i don't know if we have a close-up. you don't hear that often. he regrets that. >> there they're getting married

this afternoon. although a private sceremony because they're miss and mr., there are going to be many public figures there, william and kate, prince harry, beatrice, eugenie, the queen. that's the royal britain nia where the dinner was held and a grand party, you can see them all there. i heard an excellent commentary, william and kate, though such a focus, will be very demure and let this royal couple have their moment. >> they are still considered a royal couple here, a private affair, but has she lived much of a public life? >> she's still prin's ann, the princess's royal daughter. she is known as an equestrian but they are choosing to live a more private life and cameras will not be in the ceremony. you're seeing them there yesterday after their rehearsal, wedding rehearsal. there he is. >> oh, my goodness gracious. >> rough looking fellow. don't you want to be a fly on

the wall at the party this afternoon. the queen and the royals and mike tindall and his rugby friends. his parents have never met the queen. this time is the first time this afternoon. >> oh, my goodness. >> that's what rugby does to you. >> two sportsmen or sports woman and a sports man getting together. >> it's a good -- >> it's romantic. >> all right. another royal wedding. you love these, don't you? you find a different one every week if you could. nadia bilchik with the morning passport, thank you as always. a quarter to the top of the hour. when will tiger woods be back on a golf course? he has told us when. the answer next.

a quarter to the top of the hour. an important story happening and a humanitarian crisis, maybe the worst happening in the world according to the u.n. this is happening in a lawless state right now that's under assault from islam -- islamist militants and trying to deal with famine. cnn's nama is live in the capital city of mogadishu. you tell us, it seems to be just a litany of problems there. >> well, in addition to the natural disaster that people are living through, it t.j., what's exacerbating this issue is that in the areas held by the shabab militants, islamist militants, they're not allowing aid agencies in. you can imagine these people who desperately fled the violence that's been ratcheting through the capital mogadishu for two decades now, have actually now been so desperate that they're coming back into the capital and there are tens of thousands. this is the only place, really,

that they are getting aid. we went along to one of those camps here in the center of mogadishu and managed to speak to some of those people, t.j. this district in the center of mogadishu town, many here haven't eaten for days. barely surviving the trek up through the territory held by militants, they're desperate not to be left out. across mogadishu camps like this are springing up. the new arrivals pitching their tents, wherever they can. the world food program says that it's currently feeding 1.5 million people here in somalia. many of those here in this camp have made that desperate trek up through south and central somalia, through the areas held by the al shabaab militant groups into mogadishu where aid can actually reach them. for those 1.5 mill than aid is reaching, the world food program

estimates there are a further 2 million that agencies are unable to get to. the african union forces are fighting to secure the capital. they're trying to ensure that the militants, these people fled, cannot follow them into these safe havens. a job the deputy chairman of the au says his people are succeeding at. now he says it's time for the international community to do more. >> this camp alone is helping 1,000 people and there are 130 camps in mogadishu. you can see that the people helping is the forces. forces are not trained to give humanitarian assistance. the aid agencies need to move in here with medicine, with water, with the food to help these children. >> reporter: he told cnn they are scaling up their humanitarian assistance to somalia and the african union says it will hold a pledging conference in august to drum up more international support. but as more and more somalis

flee the capital, desperate for help, every day they wait is another day of suffering and uncertainty. and that violence, it t.j., has now followed those refugees here into mogadishu where into the third day of intense clashes between the african union forces and the al shabaab militants. so far that is not affecting the distribution of aid, but it is only adding to the burden people are bearing here in the capital of somalia. >> nima, thank you so much. an important story. the world's eyes need to be on somalia right now. thank you so much. and to our viewers, here are some facts about somalia. it's a country of about 10 million people. just about all of them are muslim. the life expectancy of a child born in somalia right now, is 49.6 years. the literacy rate, just under 38%. that rate is much higher for men than it is for women. 60% of the people are nomadic,

25% are farmers. the main export, bananas and livestock, camels, cattle, sheep and goats. the transitional federal government and parliament rule the country, but much of the country is controlled by local warlords. somalia also serves as a base for many of the pirates operating off africa's east coast. so the united states closed its embassy there in 1991 and has no formal diplomatic presence. the state department warns all americans against travel to somalia. ten minutes to the top of the hour here on this cnn saturday morning. we will turn our attention back to washington, d.c., a lot of attention has been paid there lately but it still seems a deal not getting done. both houses of congress are in session on this saturday. a lot of activity expected there today. stay with me. excuse me? my grandfather was born in this village. [ automated voice speaks foreign language ] [ male announcer ] in here, everyone speaks the same language.

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who take certain other medicines should talk to their doctor because serious stomach problems such as bleeding may worsen. people with certain heart conditions may experience slow heart rate. [ woman ] whenever i needed her, she was there for me. now i'm here for her. [ female announcer ] ask the doctor about your loved one trying the exelon patch. visit exelonpatch.com to learn more. all right. about seven minutes to the top of the hour. joined by joe carter, good to see you as always. >> you as well. >> how long has he been out? >> 11 weeks. >> going to play at the bridge stone next week, bridgestone is a tournament he has won seven times before, i believe. he's been out with the knee injury, the achilles injury, but back, also going to play in the final major of the year which is the pga championship in atlanta which is big because that gives him one major in this calendar season. he's four behind jack. it gives him an opportunity to

at least owin one this year. tiger is going to have a new cadd caddie, byron bell a childhood friend of his. bell has caddied for him before, before steve williams, and he also has some ties to some of tiger's alleged mistresses. apparently covered up some relationship encounters between rachel uki tell and joslyn james. tiger trusts this guy. see if we trust him to pull out the right clubs. >> that's a good way to put it. bring the scandal back up, probably why people would recognize the name and who this guy is, he was the one allegedly making calls and booking this and booking that the whole time. a lot has happened with tiger. >> he's got to get back on the course and start winning. we talked about it a couple weeks ago a lot of money going out, not much coming in. the endorsement deals back going, get everything back in play again so to speak, both on the course and off. >> we don't know how his game is

right now. >> you have to think his short game is decent because he can practice putting with his hurt knee, but off the tee box probably need work. baseball, melky cabrera had a great game, hit a grand slam, but his show boating rubbed the indians the wrong way. fourth inning, cabrera hits this grand slam. watch at the plate, sort of admires his home run. it's a slight pause but it's long enough to make the indians mad. there you see it there. cleveland sends a message and they throw the next pitch at billy butler's head. um ump tosses the pitcher. both benches clear. nothing happened. order restored. no one ejected after that. butler gets the last laugh, hits the second home run and royals easily win. >> come on. why not? if you hit a grand slam, stand there and admire, that was a half second. some of these rules in baseball, unwritten rules, and then they toss it at the guy's head because of that half second pause. are you kidding me?

>> ticky tacky. >> it is ticky tacky. >> i'm from colorado, rodeo guy, no bulls at this rodeo. an equipment operator rodeo in idaho falls, i do who. the video is less than thrilling. they're backhoes, go like ten miles an hour. >> tell us more about this one, joe. >> all kinds of events. backhoe tire stacking, navigate through courses. the top prize ford f-250. >> i'm sorry we're out of time. >> mr. facetious this morning. all right. >> good to see you as always. close to the top of the hour on this cnn saturday morning. you know it's all going down in washington, d.c. right now. we'll head back up there where congress is in session on this saturday and the president may be working the phones. stay with us. [ jon ] we don't just come up here for the view up in alaska.

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we are at the top of the hour on this cnn saturday morning. i'm t.j. holmes. thank you so much for being here and no, we have not made a deal in washington. this debt ceiling debate goes on and congress is in session today. we are expecting a lot of action up on capitol hill. action yes, progress, don't know about that yet. the house starts debate at noon, but the likely vote on a propose with a senate vote around 1:00. it's expected that's not going to pass. the senate side, they'll kick off debate at the same time on that same proposal around 1:00 eastern time. that debate could last, though, about 12 hours, so it could be

1:00 in the morning eastern time before they ever get to any kind of a vote there. the president has been chiming in a lot over the past couple of weeks. he chimed in once again this morning in his weekend white house address. >> the power to solve this is in our hands. all that's needed is a simple vote that democrats and republicans have taken for decades including all of the leaders in congress today. it was done 18 times under president reagan, 7 times under george w. bush, and it must be done again now. it's not a vote that allows congress to spend more money. raising the debt ceiling simply gives our country the ability to pay the bills that congress has already racked up. >> all right. the republicans certainly had a response to the president this morning. they delivered their address. arizona senator jon kyl had the honor. >> president obama is simply too committed to the european style of big government, that his policies have set in motion.

to democrats in washington, the answer suspect to cut spending, but to raise taxes and keep on spending. republicans believe we must solve our debt crisis, and we believe we can solve it if democrats will work with us. >> all right. we've got a couple competing plans out there. house speaker john boehner for the republicans had a plan, also the senate majority leader harry reid for the democrats have a plan as well. boehner's plan passed the house yesterday but at the senate it was d.o.o., quote/unquote, over in the senate. today we'll see what reid's plan can do. joe johns joins me now from washington. joe, does harry reid's plan, is it expected to have any life in the house? >> you know, this is big-time wrestling, t.j. democrats and reid are going to need help. they're apparently going to need 60 votes and there aren't 60 democrats in the senate. i say apparently because anything can change over there. typically in a situation like this, the senate -- the majority party has to reach out to

persuadable senators on the other side. the idea being to fashion a compromise that can pass. the question is whether the senate republican leader mitch mcconnell will give his blessing to that. now he has said the white house needs to be involved in any negotiations. so democrats are putting pressure on mcconnell or at least trying to. listen to this. >> it's up to the senate and that means it's up to senator mcconnell to either negotiate himself or give permission to others to negotiate so that we can finally come to a bipartisan agreement. >> reporter: meanwhile, the senate, as you said, t.j., has already rejected the plan passed by the house. republican speaker john boehner talked about what is in it just last night. >> what this bill now says is before the president can request an additional increase in the debt limit, two things have to happen. a joint committee of the

congress must produce a spending cuts larger than the increase in the debt limit and both houses of the congress must send to the states a balanced budget amendment. >> so, t.j., this is sort of like two trains passing in the night or is it ships passing in the night. >> i think it's ships. >> they need to get on the same page. mixing my met fa fors, i'm sorry. >> it doesn't matter this morning, man. help us understand at all, though, did we get any progress actually done even though we knew when the house voted if they approved it it was den on arrival in the -- dead on arrival in the senate, but did it help us at least get a ben benchmark? was any progress made yesterday? >> well, yeah, i mean you got a vehicle, at least, right. you got a framework that the house sends over to the senate and you also really learned just what john boehner's up against and it tells the senate what he can actually pass.

so, there's a little bit of progress in the margins, but it's not substantive and as we all know, the big deal here is the timeline. the timeline is very short, and you don't have much time to dink around, as it were. >> joe jones, we appreciate you this morning. we'll see you again here shortly, i'm sure. all right. in about five minutes past the hour, to our viewers this debt crisis has a lot of people worried, yes here in the u.s., people depending on their social security checks don't know it if those will go out after august 2nd. the military don't know if they will actually get paid. members of our military are on the fence right now, don't know if they will get paid because of the debt crisis in washington. yes, those are the worries here. people around the world have concerns as well. our jonathan man reporting for us. a big concern ability what is and what is not going on in d.c. >> reporter: while the debt ceiling debate drags on in washington, much of the rest of the world watches with growing concern. >> i am worried because this

debt ceiling issue has not been cracked. >> reporter: and it's not just the head of the international monetary fund. people on the streets of beijing are aware the u.s. debt affects china's economy too. >> >> translator: the crisis is not only limited in the u.s., but also in europe. we cannot say say the u.s. is not powerful now as a big u.s. debt holder china will for sure be affected. >> reporter: in australia, too. >> makes it much more expensive for tourists to visit australia. those parts of our economy exposed to the tourist sector, we've spent a lot of money promoting australia overseas, are not going to benefit so greatly from that. >> reporter: in tokyo some economic experts see history repeating itself. they compared the current u.s. debt crisis to japan's crippling recession of the 1990s. >> it's exact replay of what we went through in japan 10, 15 years ago. >> reporter: however the debate plays out in washington, experts say the financial ripples will

be felt around the world. >> it's an issue that really is lurking in the background of each and every economy of the world. >> reporter: jonathan man reporting. >> seven minutes past the hour. the politics of a deadline deal, anybody going to come out of this looking good? does it matter at this point? maria and lenny always looking good. we'll see if they sound good here in a few moments. friends of our show on cnn saturday morning. they will join us in a moment. first, do you know when the first debt limit was set in the united states? actually lenny and maria, do you have the answer? think about it too. was it in 1854, 1899 or was it 1917? the year of the first debt ceiling -- the first year that it was set. the answer for you after the break along with lenny and may ya. seven minutes past the hour on this cnn saturday morning.

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all right. 11 minutes past the hour. before the break we asked you when the first debt limit was set in the u.s. was it 1854, 1899 or 1917? congratulations to you folks who picked 1917. it was the debt limit, know what it was back then? $11.5 billion. it's now $14.3 trillion. 11.5 be there. won't even get us through the day probably, probably the next 30 minutes here in this country.

the clock is ticking on deboughdebought default. the government could start defaulting on loans as early as tuesday if the debt ceiling deal is not reached. bring in democratic strategist maria in washington and republican strategist lenny, in chicago, friends of our show. good to see you both. i have said for a while they're crazy but not this crazy. go through what you have to do, your fighting, but i didn't think we would get this close. maria, did you? >> i actually did have an inkling we would get this close, t.j., for the following reason -- i've been saying this a long time on your show -- when the tea partiers got elected i knew and a lot of people knew that the gop was going to have an issue with trying to both ensure that they were in line with the tea party folks as well as making sure that they were seen as reasonable. sometimes those two things are not in the same category. that's what we're seeing play out right now, where you saw john boehner in the last two days having to cow toe to his

tea party caucus, adding a balanced amendment to his plan that was already dead on arrival in the senate. i did have an inkling thuz was going to get -- that this was going to get to this place. >> lenny, tell me if it sounds the same to you, she is putting this squarely on the tea party folks up in washington, d.c. is that fair and if those folks weren't there, would a deal have been done weeks, months ago? >> well, the tea party folks at least brought the spending issue to the table, but if the tea party folks are inflexible, the democrats have been flat out lazy because they haven't put a budget on the table for the last several years. this is something they could have addressed while they had a super majority, while they had the huge majority in the house of representatives. they went after obama care. they abdicated their responsibility to the american people when they had a chance to deal with this previously. now you had these tea party activists that came to washington on the backs of the

democrats' laziness in dealing with this. now they're the other extreme. somewhere in the middle, we have to get america back on track. it may not be with the extremism of some of the tea party activists just as much as it's not going to be with the extreme of some on the other side of the aisles. >> you have been -- i don't know the right thing to call, a tea partier or the correct way to say it. i know you spoke at some rallies and done work with them. you're saying as well, you can't be inflexible. you have to be willing to give. do you see that the tea party in your opinion is not giving at all and that's the holdup? >> there are some that are not giving. i'm not going to say everybody in that caucus, but definitely some that have been inflexible. the bottom line is we didn't get here overnight and we're going to have to progress pass and through this. some said the republicans had a big win, should have taken advantage of it this time last week and got us past this

crisis. >> that some he could speak of, some could be one, two, three or four or five but seem pretty powerful right now. >> that's exactly the point, t.j., and i wrote a piece on cnn.com about this, it's called "the tyranny of '87" which is when you put that much power in the hands of a group of small people, people who have never governed before, no interest in compromising and so inflexible and their way or the highway, the american people at the end of the day are the ones who are going to get hurt. couple things may happen, if we go into default or if our credit rating is lowered to aa which the tea partiers don't think is a big deal, there will be a huge tax increase on every single american in this country in the way of increased interest rates. so for a group of people who are just adamantly against tax increases, this is not something that they understand and that is something that the gop is going to continue to have a problem with. >> all right. lenny and maria, i'm going to

have you back, be with me next hour. appreciate you all starting to join us earlier here on cnn saturday morning because there is so much going on in d.c. lenny and maria, maria, i will tweet out and facebook out your article, "the tyranny of '87" and let everybody get a good read at that. see you in the next hour. >> thanks, t.j. >> thank you, t.j. tomorrow night a cnn special om this debt crisis, what will it take to find a solution? wolf blitzer and don lemon looking for a solution, breaking down some of the hurdles and options called "get it done, countdown to debt crisis" sunday night 9:00 eastern here on cnn. 16 minutes past the hour. we will be joined by reynolds wolf here in just a moment as we take a beautiful look at atlanta, georgia. we'll see if the south is going to see temperatures in the 90s again, but it's hot atlanta, of course we will.

19 minutes past the hour on this cnn saturday morning. look at some of the stories our affiliates are covering for you. start in phoenix, where four members of the same family have been charged in the death of a 10-year-old girl. ame deal's body was found locked in a box outside the family's home on july the 12th. she had suffocated. the family told police she died in the box while playing hide and seek. the arrest came after police discovered the family routinely locked her in the box as a form of punishment. let me quickly get to another story right now. and i have got to taste this lemonade because it's apparently worth $10,000 a cup. but actually what happened here, a kansas businessman had some

pretty deep pockets. this is over in wit cha ta, he paid $10,000 for a glass of lemona lemonade. they were raising money for tornado relief in joplin, missouri, with their lemonade stand and he hooked them up with that. the kids have raised some $13,000. so a little vodka in that lemonade, that's good stuff. let's it turn to michigan now. all right. you heard about this one, reynolds. that's a big catfish what you're saying there. >> good gosh. that's a monster. >> half hour, he said to reel in this catfish. he plans to have it officially measured and weighed to see if it breaks any records. >> that's job seen. >> it is. >> lemonade mixed with adult beverage? after seeing one of those, that may be, you know, one of the next moves. that's a huge fish. >> huge fish. >> what does a thing like that eat?

>> they all cut up and fry the same. doesn't matter what size they are. >> i guess so. we've got about one minute left. i'm going to hop over and get to the weather. one of the big stories, of course, is tropical depression don which unfortunately fizzled out. brought a little rainfall to south texas but in terms of the drought breaking rainfall they were hoping for, it didn't happen. there is the possibility, might see more development into the atlantic. we're watching this area which has the national hurricane center tells us has about a 70% possibility of becoming a named storm. if it is a named storm the name will be emily. try that one on for size. meanwhile the rest of your forecast is plain and simple, one of the topics over the last couple weeks has been the heat. today will be no exception. central plains, hazy, hot, humid, should feel like it's into the 100s with the high humidity and warm temperatures. northern plains may deal with storms today. your highs, kansas city outside kauffman city, 81 in memphis. 9 3 in new york.

out west, san francisco with 70 and los angeles with 71. a quick snapshot on your forecast. t.j., pitch it back to you. >> you're pretty good with american history? >> pretty good. >> i mean surely you know what abraham lincoln is famous for. >> absolutely, yeah. >> would you believe a lot of people don't and an alarming number of students in this country cannot tell you what abraham lincoln is for. why exactly are we failing history? a closer look in 90 seconds. stay with me. i love that my daughter's part fish.

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all right. 24 minutes past the hour. we've got good news on the education front. test scores in history classes are actually up nationwide. but that's just the good news. jacob has the rest of this story in this week's edition of "education overtime." >> reporter: most of you know who this person is, but can you name two reasons he's important to american history? if not you're in good company. a recent study called "the nation's report card" says fewer than a quarter of all students are proficient or show a solid academic performance in american history. shockingly, while most could identify a photo of abraham lincoln, hardly any could say why he was an important president. if there was anywhere they could answer the question, it would be here at the lincoln memorial in washington, d.c. can you tell me who this president is right here? >> abe lincoln.

>> abraham lincoln. >> lincoln. >> first name? >> lincoln. >> abraham lincoln. >> tell me, why was lincoln an important president? >> because he was honest. >> he did very important speeches. >> i don't know this. >> both the study and my field trip made it clear that kids aren't learning history. why that's the case and how to fix it is up for debate. possibilities include apathetic students, how history is tested and the no child left behind act squeezing history out of the classroom in favor of math and reading. when i went to see the guy in charge of the nation's report card he told me poor history scores are actually nothing new. >> there's a core of kids who are outstanding. another small percent that our policymakers would call proficient. and then there's a big chunk of kids who are, you know, below that line. and that's not changed much. >> just going through a pile. >> reporter: in massachusetts,

will publishes a journal highlighting the work of the core gifted students and he thinks the history scores are troubling. >> it's an old story. nobody's doing anything to fix it. >> reporter: i tracked down some of the bright young minds he spotlights to ask what advice they would give to a struggling history student. >> they should try to find the fun. >> when it comes down to it history is about people and people like us who shaped the course of this nation's history. >> reporter: maybe he's right. one option might be to keep reminding students history is just that. all about people just like them. for "education overtime" i'm jak jakob. >> do you think you would do well on that history test? check it out, it's on our website, cnn.com. you'll be able to see it there. we have sample test questions up there for you. close to the bottom of the hour. a check of the day's headlines next. multivitamin with more. only one a day women's 50+ advantage has ginkgo for memory and concentration,

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